The African National Congress’s political philosophy, which sees no distinction between the state and party, is partly to blame for its stance on the Oilgate saga, opposition leader Tony Leon said on Friday.
”The problem is not simply the wayward behaviour of ANC members … In the ANC’s eyes, the party represents the people as a whole, and the state is the instrument of their will.
”Stealing from the public purse to fund the ruling party, then, is not really theft — for how could the people steal from themselves?” said the Democratic Alliance’s head in his weekly electronic letter.
Leon said the clear winner in Oilgate is the ANC, which pocketed R11-million of public money and has not been forced to account.
He said the ANC has weathered the storm, with its silence ”more damning than any confession”.
Leon said there have been neither internal ANC investigations nor serious judicial commissions of inquiry into a number of scandals involving fraud and corruption, such as Oilgate, the arms deal and Travelgate, the parliamentary travel-voucher scam.
While the ANC admits that corruption exists within its ranks, the party ascribes it to a problem of individual failure, as in the case of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela or Tony Yengeni.
”The ANC tends to shield these individuals until they are perceived as a political threat to the party leadership, which is why so many of Jacob Zuma’s supporters believe he is the victim of a conspiracy.”
Leon questioned the fund-raising strategies of the ANC, saying the party turns to corrupt fundraising schemes because it is ”perpetually short” of cash.
Poor financial management is more likely the cause of the ANC’s malaise, in contrast to claims that the party is cash-poor because its members are poor.
”The more fundamental reason for the ANC’s corrupt behaviour, however, is that it has destroyed the wall between the ruling party and the state, in theory and in practice.”
Leon said the mix of constant financial problems, on the one hand, with Jacobinic political ideology and pure greed on the other is a deadly combination.
It suggests that the ruling party might well be prepared to sell its policies and principles to the highest bidder.
”In the Oilgate scandal, for example, it would seem that the ANC’s political support for Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in its dying days could have been connected to Imvume’s oil dealings in Iraq.”
Leon called on President Thabo Mbeki to establish commissions of inquiry into Oilgate, as well as pledge to clean up his party’s fund-raising system. — Sapa